Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet has published an article by Henrik Ennart in which he states that Jews and Muslims are deliberately cruel to animals. Ritual slaughter is a popular theme among anti-Semites and Islamophobes. What is not mentioned in his biased article is that the methods used by traditional Jews and Muslims are intended to shorten the suffering of the animal. However, this is not the case of the ritual killing of wildlife animals that engage many Swedish amateurs during the national hunting seasons. In fact, Swedish hunting methods are condemned by many animal-rights organizations in Europe for its extreme cruelty. Not that this newspaper would ever run an article about that—it would confuse the overall message of Sweden as the land of extraordinary concern for animal welfare.

The killing of animals is always cruel. The only way to stop it would be for everyone to go vegetarian or demand an end to industrialized slaughter methods. Personally, I prefer to buy meat that is labelled kosher by a rabbinical authority.